


To See You This Way

by leviathanchronicles



Series: Danganronpa Character Studies [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Angst, Apologies, Bittersweet, F/M, Memories, Peko is in a coma so i guess she doesnt count as a character, Post Game, Some violence/mentions of eye trauma, but it isn't gory, uhh, weird timelines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 21:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17190425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leviathanchronicles/pseuds/leviathanchronicles
Summary: Fuyuhiko wakes up, talks to Peko, and learns to stand on his own two feet.





	To See You This Way

**Author's Note:**

> timelines are a myth, i just pick and chose from various canons and hcs. if something isn't right i probably just ignored it tbqh. i hope you enjoy!

He wakes up with a shuddering gasp, then coughs and coughs. He tries to pull at the wires and tubes he can feel connected to him, but he misses and grasps at air, at his throat, at anything within reach. He can hear similar struggles around him, but he still doesn’t calm down until the shock of waking up passes.

He later finds out that this isn’t a one time thing. Waking up always takes a moment--you have to figure out who you are, where are you, what’s real and what isn’t. 

That’s the worst part, the sorting. His vision’s been impaired for years, but when he first wakes up, he thinks that it isn’t. When he realizes it is, he first remembers Peko’s sword, and then he remembers his own despair, and then he has to stop and figure out which one is true.

Later, he’ll realize that the simulation might as well be real, anyways.

* * *

 

None of the survivors know what to do, really. Hajime--well, Hajime tells them “It’s me, Hajime Hinata,” like he’s trying to convince himself. The other four just accept that they don’t really know who they are.

They sit together and trade stories, asking “Was this real? When did this happen?” When they all work together, they can usually figure it out, but there are some blank spaces. And they hardly ever discuss despair, because what can they say, really, except “I can’t believe we did that”?

Fuyuhiko spends a lot of time with them, but he still isn’t used to facing the world as a united front, so he spends a lot of time by himself, too. And then, when he has the emotional strength to do so, he spends a lot of time at Peko’s side.

He tries to reason with himself. He’d thought she was dead for a while, and he’d survived, hadn’t he? Then again, he also tried to kill himself in a misguided attempt at asking for forgiveness. It isn’t like he was ever taught emotional maturity. 

He’s trying to learn, though, so he talks to her.

* * *

 

“None of us actually know anything. We don’t. You guys are gonna wake up and ask us questions, and we won’t be able to answer any of them. Just a warning. But I’ll tell you what I do know.” He leans on the back legs of the chair and rests his feet at the foot of her bed. If she were awake, she’d clear her throat, and he would sit up normally. He almost does it now just at the thought.

“So we were this big happy class, then Junko made us all turn to despair. I think you know that already. We, uh--we killed most of the higher members of the clan. I’m not really an heir to anything anymore. That, or I’m the leader of absolutely nothing.” He isn’t as upset about that as he thinks he should be. Really, he’s more upset that he’s the one responsible for it. 

“You’ll probably remember all of the simulation and most of our days at Hope’s Peak. The despair stuff, that’s harder to remember. None of us really want to remember, but then we talk about it, and everyone’s all ‘how are we supposed to make a difference if we won’t acknowledge what we did?’ I think I do want to fix things, but where do we even begin?”

He stares at her like she might answer--he knows her face better than he knows his own, but he still studies her like something might change.

“I hope you remember the simulation. No, that’s not true, I don’t want you to remember the bad parts. I just want you to remember what I said, about...wanting...you. Needing you. Just you. I wasn’t lying about that, okay? I meant it.”

He closes his eyes and listens to the machinery around them.

* * *

 

“Hajime’s trying something to wake you guys up. I don’t really get it. I didn’t ask. I don’t know, it’s kind of weird talking to them. Like, we’ve all been through everything together. That should be comforting, but it kind of makes it worse.”

Which doesn’t even make sense, because he knows he’d be able to say all this to Peko even if she were awake, and they’ve been together for everything. Then again, there are other things he kept from her. Things like paranoia after they were kidnapped, or how ashamed he was most of the time, or--but she’s smart, so she probably figured out all those things, anyways. 

Well, all except one.

“Right now, Kazuichi’s tearing apart the medical equipment from when we were in comas. He’s helping Hajime with whatever it is. I’m shocked he hasn’t woken everyone up just from the noise. Hey!” Kazuichi looks up and grins; Fuyuhiko kind of hates how he’s still acting carefree. “Do you have to do that now?”

“I don’t have to, but the sooner I do, the sooner we can try waking people up.”

Fuyuhiko pushes back a groan, waving for Kazuichi to continue, before he goes back to giving an update. “Uh, Akane, she wants me to train with her--gotta get our bodies back in shape, or something. I think Sonia’s been the most bearable so far. You two were kind of friends, weren’t you? Maybe not in the sim, but in the real world. That’s good. I’m glad.”

* * *

 

“You’re gonna hate waking up. Having to relearn everything. For a while after, I had to use both hands to get a forkful of food in my mouth. I still miss and hit myself in the face sometimes. It would be embarrassing if not for everyone else doing it, too.”

He knows it’ll be worse for her. She’s been out longer, so she has more of a wall to break past. But beyond that, too--he was never all that physical. Fighting’s her thing--discipline, steadiness, strength, that’s all hers. He doesn’t want to think about how hard it’s going to be. He thinks at this point, she deserves to have things come easily.

“I’ll be here to help, though. Yeah, I’m gonna help you, so you better not try and tell me not to. I won’t even make fun of you that much.” He sighs and cracks his knuckles. “Kazuichi was trying to tear apart one of our little life machines a few weeks after we woke up. Nearly lost one of his hands because he was so shaky. I might not let you go near any swords for a while. Not like you’re gonna listen, but whatever.”

She never really did listen to him, anyways--if she did, she would’ve run. Better yet, she really would’ve dropped the whole tool thing and never grabbed the baseball bat anyways.

He catches himself and sighs. He knows this struggle will never be the same as hers, but it’s something he’s unlearning, too. “You don’t have to listen to me. Swords are gonna be a bad idea, though. That’s just some advice.” And sure, she can’t hear him, but he still wants to correct himself. If he does it now, he’ll be able to keep it up later.

Behind him, someone clears their throat; he turns to see Sonia standing with her hands folded politely. He gets the feeling she’s been listening to him. Normally, that would upset him, but now--she was one of the first by his side when he woke up in the middle of a panic attack, so talking to Peko isn’t all that embarrassing.

And anyways, Sonia just pulls a chair over to sit by Gundham’s bed. Fuyuhiko turns back to Peko, allowing Sonia some kind of privacy. “The physical stuff isn’t really the worst part. But I’m gonna be here for the mental part, too. Bet that’ll help a lot, huh?”

The more he talks, the more he convinces himself that it really is going to be fine. She’ll wake up, and he’ll help her through recovery, and they’ll be all happy, like some stupid Hallmark movie with a really depressing beginning.

* * *

 

The imposter wakes up first, then Teruteru. And all of them take that as a sign--they’re waking up in the order they “died.” Which is good, because Fuyuhiko can handle waiting a little longer. But then Gundham wakes up, and Sonia holds his hand as gently as she can--Fuyuhiko knows it must hurt, having to hold back--and everything’s all hectic. 

Fuyuhiko hovers around the mess long enough to tell Gundham he’s “glad you’re up, I guess.” He has to pull his heart down from his throat before he sits beside Peko again.

“This is your way of trying to teach me patience, huh?” He asks fondly, his chair angled so that he can still follow the conversation happening with Gundham. Everyone there is a bit too preoccupied to care about what he says. 

“So, we’ve got me, Hajime, Kazuichi, Sonia, Akane, Teruteru, and the imposter--I don’t know if you know about that. When you wake up, you have to tell me what all you could see while you--while your avatar was--” He shakes his head. The word “dead” is too close to home for him; he can’t say it as long as she’s laying here, her chest barely moving.

“Well, long story short, Byakuya wasn’t Byakuya, just an imposter. They actually told us that before everything happened, but it’s one of the memories I lost, I guess. I bet if we put all our heads together, we’ll have a full timeline.”

Hajime lifts a cup of water to Gundham’s mouth, tilts it as slowly as he can, but Gundham coughs anyways. None of them are doctors. They don’t know what they’re doing. Kazuichi snickers--recovery sucked for all of them. They have to laugh about it now.

Fuyuhiko, he just keeps talking.

“And now Gundham. Hey, promise me you’ll wake up before Mikan. I know you’ll be pissed off if she wakes up first, so just save yourself the trouble and wake up, okay?” 

He likes to think she would’ve been amused by the joke.

* * *

 

The worst part is that there’s no rhythm or reason to how his classmates wake up. Teruteru woke up a day after the Imposter, but it takes a week after Gundham for Mahiru to open her eyes. Fuyuhiko avoids everyone for a few days after, until he misses Peko so much it hurts. Even so, he avoids eye contact when he slips in to see Peko. He doesn’t know how to talk to Mahiru. Maybe their killing game isn’t much in the scheme of things, maybe it’s meaningless compared to the easy way they tortured each other (and themselves) before the simulation. 

But the game feels so much closer than despair does--sometimes, Fuyuhiko still forgets that he chose what happened to his eye, because it’s buried deep behind the memory of blinding pain and Peko showing more emotion than either of them could handle. “I guess that just proves that the simulation was doing its job, huh?”

Mahiru turns, wincing, and Fuyuhiko clenches his jaw. It isn’t like there’s anything else for her to pay attention to here. It’s guilt, mostly, that makes him meet her eyes. “I can shut up, if it’s gonna bother you.”

She shrugs, but keeps watching him. And Fuyuhiko hates it, because he knows what the first few days are like--sorting between the simulation and their old school days, grasping at the half-formed memories of despair but wishing you’d let them slip away as soon as you get ahold of them. He looks at Peko, but speaks to Mahiru.

“There were these pictures you took, or maybe the simulation just said that you took them. I don’t know. But Peko was in one of them, and she--she looked like a normal high schooler. I guess I want to say thanks, for that.” He shakes his head, teeth still clenched. “Alright, that’s kind of a dick move, thanking you like that.”

He looks up, because only cowards dance around apologies, and he’s trying so hard to stop being so afraid. Mahiru tilts her head, and he sighs and moves to stand beside her bed. “I’m...sorry. For everything. What happened in the simulation, for Sato, for, I don’t know, everything I did. Don’t worry about forgiving me. I’m not doing it so I can pat myself on the back for it.”

She doesn’t speak--he doesn’t even know if she could at this point, but the silence makes him nervous. He nods at the water bottles left in the corner of the room. “Are you thirsty? Sonia’s better at being a nice nurse, but I can try.”

Mahiru nods, and he brings back a bottle, pouring some of the water into a dusty glass--he knows from watching that it’s easy to spill these, and soaking Mahiru wouldn’t exactly help him with what he’s trying to do here. He tilts the bottle back so slowly that she squints at him, clearly annoyed, and he pushes down a flare of irritation.

He’s controlling his emotions now, anyways.

When she’s done, he holds the water to his chest like a shield. “I can’t remember if I ever told you, but your photographs are...I mean, you’re the ultimate for a reason. I’ve always thought they were good. Um, the one you took of Peko--” His voice cracks, and he stares down at the water bottle until it starts to blur. 

They’d both been smiling--he can barely remember the last time that happened. Mahiru had to have taken it when they weren’t paying attention, because Fuyuhiko doesn’t smile for the camera, and Peko--Peko doesn’t have reasons to smile that often at all. But in that photo, she was. He thinks it might be the most beautiful picture Mahiru’s ever taken.

Mahiru hums, prompting him to continue, and he stiffens. Of all the people to cry in front of, it would be Mahiru, wouldn’t it? In his hurry to wipe away tears, he ends up splashing water from the open bottle onto his shirt.

He almost laughs when he speaks, pulling at the wet fabric. “Don’t worry, I’m just as tough as I was before.” He looks up in time to see Mahiru roll her eyes, but she’s almost smiling, too.

* * *

 

Later, when Mahiru’s asleep, he sits beside Peko again and leans in to whisper to her. “Hey, remember when you lectured me about being immature? Acting like a kid--which I wasn't, by the way. But just so you know, I apologized to Mahiru today. Said the words “I’m sorry” and everything. Pretty mature. At this rate, when you wake up, you won’t even recognize me. Hell, as long as you’re taking, I might not recognize you either.” 

The thing is, he can remember holding her hand through their despair just as vividly as he can remember seeing her avatar for the last time. And when he thinks about being a remnant of despair, well, she’s always by his side. He guesses it would take a lot more than total devastation and the end of the world to break them apart.

* * *

 

Peko wakes up. 

And Fuyuhiko does his best to help her through all of it. He brings her meals, and helps her sit up to eat them, and gives her advice.

Mostly, though, he just listens.

**Author's Note:**

> tbqh this was supposed to be sm entirely different but then i started writing the bit w mahiru and got really into it so. there we go. also i couldn't choose between "mostly, though, he just listens" and "mostly, though, they just talk" as the final line so i just kind of. died
> 
> uhh kudos/comments/critiques are always appreciated, check out my profile for info abt supporting me, and feel free to drop requests if you don't mind waiting months!


End file.
